Cylinder exhaust gas recirculation distribution measurement systems and methods
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsTyler Lacey, Shawn Spannbauer, Norman Opolsky, Chad Stateler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for measuring exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) distribution among individual engine cylinders. In one example, a method may include fluidly coupling a plurality of intake runners of an engine to a vacuum pump, diverting a portion of intake charge gas from the intake runner to a gas composition sensor with the vacuum pump, measuring an oxygen concentration of the diverted intake charge portion with the gas composition sensor, and estimating an EGR concentration of the intake charge based on the measured oxygen concentration.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- fluidly coupling a plurality of intake runners of an engine to a vacuum pump;
- diverting a portion of intake charge gas with the vacuum pump to form a diverted intake charge gas flow from each of the plurality of intake runners to a gas composition sensor and then the vacuum pump;
- measuring an oxygen concentration of the diverted intake charge gas portion with the gas composition sensor;
- and
- estimating an EGR concentration of the intake charge gas based on the measured oxygen concentration.
An EGR measurement system, comprising:
- an engine, including a plurality of intake runners, each fluidly coupled upstream from a separate engine cylinder;
- a vacuum pump fluidly coupled downstream to each of the plurality of intake runners;
- a plurality of gas composition sensors, each fluidly coupled downstream from a separate intake runner and upstream from the vacuum pump;
- and
- a controller, including executable instructions stored in memory on-board the controller to,
- divert intake charge gas from each of the plurality of intake runners to one of the plurality of gas composition sensors,
- measure oxygen concentrations of the diverted intake charge gas from each of the intake runners with the plurality of gas composition sensors, and
- estimate EGR concentrations of each of the intake runners from the corresponding measured oxygen concentration of the diverted intake charge gas.
A method for an engine, comprising, during a first condition, including when a first intake gas is being drawn from a first intake runner and diverted from combustion cylinders of the engine to a first intake gas composition sensor with a vacuum pump, where the first intake gas composition sensor is positioned in a flow of diverted first intake gas from the first intake runner to the vacuum pump;
- drawing a second intake gas from a second intake runner and diverting the second intake gas from engine combustion cylinders to a second intake gas composition sensor with the vacuum pump, where the second intake gas composition sensor is positioned in a flow of diverted second intake gas from the second intake runner to the vacuum pump.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.